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Speaker 1: Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your

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Speaker 1: walk with Christ, please visit us at Bible Studyheadquarters dot com.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the chapter today Audio Bible. I'm John Stangey,

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Speaker 1: and today we're in Job chapter eighteen, and we'll be

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Speaker 1: reading from the message build ad from Shoeha chimed in.

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Speaker 1: How monotonous these word games are getting? Get serious? We

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Speaker 1: need to get down to business. Why do you treat

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Speaker 1: your friends like slow witted animals. You look down on

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Speaker 1: us as if we don't know anything. Why are you

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Speaker 1: working yourself up like this? Do you want the world

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Speaker 1: redesigned to suit you? Should reality be suspended to accommodate you.

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Speaker 1: Here's the rule. The light of the wicked is put out.

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Speaker 1: Their flame dies down and is extinguished. Their house goes dark,

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Speaker 1: Every lamp in the place goes out. Their strong strides

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Speaker 1: weaken falter. They stumble into their own traps. They get

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Speaker 1: all tangled up in their own red tape. Their feet

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Speaker 1: are grabbed and caught, their necks in a noose. They

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Speaker 1: trip on ropes they've hidden and fall into pits they've

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Speaker 1: dug themselves. Terrors come at them from all sides. They

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Speaker 1: run helter skelter. The hungry grave is ready to gobble

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Speaker 1: them up for supper, to lay them out for a

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Speaker 1: gourmet meal, a treat for ravenous death. They are snatched

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Speaker 1: from their home, sweet home, and march straight to the

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Speaker 1: death house. Their lives go up in smoke. Acid rain

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Speaker 1: soaks their ruins, their roots rot, and their branches with

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Speaker 1: or they'll never again be remembered, nameless in unmarked graves.

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Speaker 1: They are plunged from light into darkness, banished from the world,

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Speaker 1: and they leave empty handed, not one single child, nothing

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Speaker 1: to show for their life on this earth. Westerners are

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Speaker 1: aghast at their fate. Easterners are horrified. Oh no, so

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Speaker 1: this is what happens to perverse people. This is how

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Speaker 1: the god ignorant end up. Let's pray, Lord, we thank

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Speaker 1: you for your word, and we thank you for the

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Speaker 1: privilege of being able to look at it together today.

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Speaker 1: And Lord, as we look at this portion of scripture again,

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Speaker 1: we see another example of Job's friends not providing much

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Speaker 1: comfort to him at all. It would have been better

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Speaker 1: if they had just remained silent and present with him

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Speaker 1: instead of trying to come up with different ways to

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Speaker 1: bring accusation against him. And Lord here we see, particularly

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Speaker 1: at the opening of this passage of scripture, we see

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Speaker 1: Bill Dad criticizing Job and saying that his words are

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Speaker 1: monotonous and that he needs to get serious and that

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Speaker 1: he's not addressing the real root of the problem. But again,

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Speaker 1: they don't understand that not every trial that comes into

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Speaker 1: our lives is a punishment. Lord, you often use trials

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Speaker 1: as a blessing to us. You refine our faith, You

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Speaker 1: strengthen our dependence and our reliance on You, and you

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Speaker 1: strip away things that oftentimes can become idols or distractions

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Speaker 1: that really need to go away anyway, so that we

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Speaker 1: can focus on You, and so that we could recognize

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Speaker 1: that because we have salvation through faith in your son

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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, we have what we truly need. Lord. We

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Speaker 1: pray that during our next season of trial, that you

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Speaker 1: would provide people in our lives who provide encouragement for us,

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Speaker 1: and that we would rest in the fact that we

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Speaker 1: find ultimate comfort through you. Lord. We know that you

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Speaker 1: supply that, and we're grateful that you have our lives

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Speaker 1: in your hands, that you're not going to let us go,

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Speaker 1: and that you are present with us in the midst

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Speaker 1: of everything. We go through We love you, Lord, and

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Speaker 1: we thank you for your blessings, and we thank you

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Speaker 1: for your presence with us. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen,